Elementary

by Mercedes Lackey

  Then the cottage shook with a crash and a drumming of hooves.

  The monster barked in surprise and stopped clawing at the door.

  There was another crash, and another, and the bellow of an elk. Rosa knew what it was because she had seen an elk trumpeting one day in the forest. Then another crash, and the entire cottage rocked, the monster shrieked, and chaos erupted on the other side of her wooden barrier.

  She fainted.

  She could not have been unconscious for too very long, because the fighting was still going on, although it sounded distinctly as if the elk was losing. She curled her fingers into the bark of the tree and tried to will it strength, tears pouring from her eyes.

  The elk was going to die. The horrible thing out there was going to kill it. And then it would break through the wood, and it would kill her—

  And then, out of nowhere, the cottage rocked again; a thunderous roar shook the walls. Rosa screamed. She couldn’t imagine what it was—

  And then she heard the voices calling her. “Rosa! Rosa!” muffled by the wood.

  “Here!” she cried out, pounding her little fists on the bark. “Here!”

  Then she fell into a widening gap as the wood parted, dropped into arms that plucked her out of the pantry and pulled her up onto a huge, strong shoulder.

  The cottage was no longer full of shadows. The door was gone. She got a glimpse of her savior, the elk, with its head hanging but still standing, hide gashed in dozens of places, being tended to by a woman with short-cut hair, dressed as the stranger had been, in well-worn green loden hunting gear. She got another glimpse of the monster, a hole in its chest, head hacked off, and hid her face in her rescuer’s shoulder.

  And she cried and cried and cried while her rescuer carried her out into the woods, patting her back awkwardly.

  “There there,” he murmured. “It’s all right now, Rosa. You’re safe.”

  Her rescuer carried her over to some horses, somehow mounting without ever putting her down. She looked up for a moment through eyes streaming with tears and saw the elk stumbling out of the ruined door, staggering a little, but looking determined.

  “That’s one fellow that will never become cutlets with mushrooms,” said one of the other green-clad hunters mounting his own horse.

  “Aye. Gilda will bring him back to the Lodge, and he’ll live to be a ripe old age, and die having fathered a hundred more like him,” her rescuer rumbled. “And well done, he. If it had not been for him answering the child’s call, we’d never have got here in time.”

  Rosa put her head back down on the man’s shoulder, sobbing, and clinging to him.

  “Hans, Fritz,” the man ordered, “go to the girl’s parents. Tell them we’re taking her. It’s clearly not safe for her to be with them anymore. The next time, the beasts might come into the village, and the Good God only knows what would happen then.”

  “Aye, Hunt Master,” said another fellow, and there was the sound of hooves trotting away.

  Wait . . . It wasn’t safe for her to live with Mutti and Vati?

  “Where are you taking me?” Rosa asked, pulling her head off the man’s shoulder, and scrubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. “Who are you?”

  Again, the man patted her back. “Don’t be afraid, Rosa. I am the Hunt Master of the Schwarzwald Foresters. We have been watching you, and watching over you, ever since you arrived. Your aunt and uncle told us about you. We are going to take you to our Lodge, where you will be safe and learn about your magic all the time.”

  Rosa blinked, took a deep breath, about to object—and stopped. Because . . . this felt right. This was what she . . . wanted.

  “But Vati and Mutti—”

  “Will come visit you all the time. Unless they wish to return to the city—and if they do, we know powerful men who will make certain that they are well taken care of.” The man put his horse in motion; the rest of the group followed him.

  Rosa could see the elk limping along at the end of the group. She put her head down on his shoulder, and thought.

  Was it wrong that she loved her Mutti and Vati, and yet felt . . . as if they never really understood who she was and what she wanted? Because that was, indeed, how she felt. She could not explain it, but she had felt, instantly, more at home with this man whose name she didn’t even know, than with them.

  “You are very quiet, little one,” the man murmured. “Are you troubled? Do you not care for what we have planned?”

  “I—I am troubled because I do,” she almost wailed softly, feeling a desperate sort of confusion come over her.

  “Ah . . . that is because your magic speaks to mine. We are more alike than if you were my daughter and I were your father.” He patted her. “I will gladly be a second father to you, child. If you would care for that.”

  The moment he said that, she knew it was true. This man, this Hunt Master, was more like her father than her own Vati. He understood the hunger to learn about her magic. And he would be able to protect her as her own Vati could not.

  She thought about that monster breaking into her own little home, and her blood ran cold. Her parents would have had less chance against that thing than Großmutter.

  Even if she hadn’t liked these plans—and she did—she could not endanger them like that.

  “I would care for that, Hunt Master,” she said with a sigh, laying her head down on his shoulder and closing her eyes. “Please take me home.”

  About the Authors

  Jennifer Brozek is an award-winning editor, game designer, and author. She has been writing role-playing games and professionally publishing fiction since 2004. With the number of edited anthologies, fiction sales, RPG books, and nonfiction books under her belt, Jennifer is often considered a Renaissance woman, but she prefers to be known as a wordslinger and optimist. Read more about her at www.jenniferbrozek

  .com or follow her on Twitter at @JenniferBrozek.

  Ron Collins has appeared in Analog, Asimov’s, Nature, and several other magazines and anthologies. His writing has received a Writers of the Future prize, and a CompuServe HOMer Award. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and has worked developing avionics systems, electronics, and information technology. Today, though, he finds himself living in the truly arcane world of a Human Resources department in the heart of Corporate America. How that happened, he’ll never know. He lives in Columbus, Indiana, with his wife, Lisa. The obligatory cat’s name is Keiko. He reports that he’s been looking for an excuse to retell “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” ever since he used the Disney version of it to teach storytelling structure to middle-school kids. So you could say that writing this story was a dream come true.

  Samuel Conway holds a doctorate in chemistry from Dartmouth and currently lives and works in the environs of Raleigh, NC. When he is not doing research he serves as the chairman of Anthrocon, the world’s largest anthropomorphics convention, which is held annually in Pittsburgh, PA. Somewhere between the two he somehow finds time to write. This foray into the world of the Elemental Masters is his third published work outside of the small-press circuit.”

  Dayle A. Dermatis’ short fantasy has been called “funny (and rather ingenious),” “something new and something fresh,” and “really, really good!” Under various pseudonyms (and sometimes with coauthors), she’s sold several novels and more than 100 short stories in multiple genres. She lives and works in California within scent of the ocean, and in her spare time follows Styx around the country and travels the world, all of which inspires her writing. To find out where she is today, check out www.cyvarwydd.com.

  Rosemary Edghill’s first professional sales were to the black & white horror comics, so she can truthfully state on her resume that she once killed vampires for a living. She has worked as an SF editor for Avon Books, as a freelance book designer, as a typesetter, as an illustrator, as an anthologist, and as a
professional book reviewer. She has written Regency romances, historical novels, space opera, high fantasy, media tie-ins, and horror, and collaborated with authors such as Marion Zimmer Bradley, SF Grand Master Andre Norton, and Mercedes Lackey—Mad Maudlin, her third Bedlam’s Bard collaboration, was a 2002 Voices of Youth Advocates (VOYA) selection as one of the best Horror and Fantasy novels of the year. You can find her on Facebook or Dreamwidth when she ought to be writing.

  Rebecca Fox always wanted to be John Carter of Mars when she grew up, because of the giant birds. Since that career path didn’t look like it was going to pan out anytime soon, she got her Ph.D. in Animal Behavior instead. She makes her home in Lexington, Kentucky, where she shares her life with three parrots, a Jack Russell terrier named Izzy, and the world’s most opinionated chestnut mare. When she isn’t writing, Rebecca teaches college biology and spends a lot of time outdoors doing research on bird behavior.

  Tanya Huff lives in rural Ontario, Canada, with her wife Fiona Patton and, as of last count, eight cats. Her 27 novels and 74 short stories include horror, heroic fantasy, urban fantasy, comedy, and space opera. She’s written four essays for BenBella’s pop culture collections. Her Blood series was turned into the 22-episode Blood Ties television show, and writing episode nine allowed her to finally use her degree in Radio & Television Arts. Her latest novel is The Silvered, and her next will be the third Gale girls book—The Future Falls. When not writing, she practices her guitar and spends too much time online.

  Cedric Johnson was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he began writing short stories and poetry at an early age. While attending Lincoln Southeast High School, Cedric was a top-placing contributor, layout editor, and senior year editor-in-chief of its multiple-award-winning annual literary publication From the Depths. Cedric currently resides in Commerce City, CO, where he continues to write while working with other form of digital media, including 3D modeling and virtual world communications.

  Michele Lang writes supernatural tales: the stories of witches, lawyers, goddesses, bankers, demons, and other magical creatures hidden in plain sight. Author of the Lady Lazarus historical fantasy series, Michele’s most recent book in the series, Rebel Angels, was released in March 2013. Please visit Michele at www.michelelang.com.

  Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as “spoiling cats.” She lives northwest of Chicago with one of the above and her husband, author and packager Bill Fawcett. She has written over forty books, including The Ship Who Won with Anne McCaffrey, eight books with Robert Asprin, and a humorous anthology about mothers, Don’t Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear!, and over 115 short stories. Her latest books are View From the Imperium and Myth-Quoted.

  Benjamin Ohlander’s previous short fiction has appeared in Sword of Ice and Other Tales of Valdemar and Crossroads and Other Tales of Valdemar. He has also written novels with David Drake and in the Wing Commander series, both from Baen. He lives with his family in Mason, Ohio.

  Fiona Patton was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and grew up in the United States. She now lives in rural Ontario with her wife, Tanya Huff, two glorious dogs, and a pride of very small lions. She has written seven fantasy novels for DAW Books, and is currently working on the first book of a new series, entitled The King’s Eagle.

  Diana L. Paxson first worked with the four elements in the Chronicles of Westria, including The Earthstone, The Sea Star, The Wind Crystal, and The Jewel of Fire. She has written two dozen other fantasy novels, mostly with historical settings, such as the Avalon series, which she took over from Marion Zimmer Bradley. She is also the author of several nonfiction books, most recently The Way of the Oracle.

  Gail Sanders and Michael Z. Williamson are married veterans who live near Indianapolis. Gail is a veteran combat photographer and construction equipment operator who works as a unit administrator for the Army Reserve. She graduated Basic Combat Training a week shy of her 36th birthday. Mike is retired from the USAF and US Army. He was a Mechanical Section shop chief in Engineer and Forward Support units. He is a full time SF writer, consultant and researcher who has worked with several TV production companies, private and military clients. Mike also tests and reviews gear for disaster preparedness, and is a bladesmith when he can find the time.

  Kristin Schwengel lives near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her husband, the obligatory cat (named Gandalf, of course), and the eternal hope that this year she will have a productive garden. Of “Sails of the Armada,” she says, “In its original incarnation, this was about the battles between Spanish priest-mages and English Druids for control of the winds. Then the sea serpent who becomes the Loch Ness monster appeared, and things got a lot more interesting.”

  Stephanie Shaver lives in Southern California, where she works in the games industry as a producer. She has one lovely daughter and a husband who cheerfully edits out as many of her prepositional phrases as he can find (and that she will allow). When she isn’t working or writing, she’s probably cooking, camping, or cat-herding. You can find her online at www.sdshaver.com.

  Louisa Swann was born on an Indian reservation in northern California, and spent the first six months of her life carried around in a papoose carrier. Determined not to remain a basket case forever, she escaped the splintered confines and proceeded to participate in, make a living as, or halfheartedly attempt the following: student, maid, waitress, receptionist, flight attendant, secretary, ski instructor, ski patrol (volunteer), and engineering assistant. She finally settled down on an eighty-acre ranch in northern California with hubby, son, two horses, cat, a varying population of rabbits, deer, coyotes, bobcats, cougars, snakes, frogs, birds, bugs, and no electricity. The human members of the family put up with Louisa’s writerly eccentricities with only a few minor squabbles. On the other hand, the horses, dog, cat, and miscellaneous wildlife understand her completely. She often goes to them for grooming when the rest of the world becomes too difficult to handle.

  Elizabeth A. Vaughan writes fantasy romance. You can learn more about her books at www.eavwrites.com. Any historical errors are hers and hers alone, but one should never let history accuracy get in the way of a good story. Special thanks to Mary E. Gustafson for answering a myriad of odd raven questions!

  Elisabeth Waters sold her first short story in 1980 to Marion Zimmer Bradley for The Keeper’s Price, the first of the Darkover anthologies. She then went on to sell short stories to a variety of anthologies. Her first novel, a fantasy called Changing Fate, was awarded the 1989 Gryphon Award. She is now working on a sequel to it, in addition to her short story writing and anthology editing. She currently edits the Sword and Sorceress anthologies. She also worked as a supernumerary with the San Francisco Opera, where she appeared in La Gioconda, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Khovanschina, Das Rheingold, Werther, and Idomeneo.

  About the Editor

  Mercedes Lackey is a full-time writer and has published numerous novels and works of short fiction, including the bestselling Heralds of Valdemar series. She is also a professional lyricist and a licensed wild bird rehabilitator. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and collaborator, artist Larry Dixon, and their flock of parrots.